"Yes" is not always God's answer

A true prayer will never go unanswered by God. Surely such a sweeping statement demands some level of proof. Before I present a biblical support for this, I want to remind you that most people assume that an answer means “yes.” It is important to realize that “no” or even “wait” are answers, too.

God has infinite resources and in theory Christians can receive infinite blessings. How is it then that many Christians struggle through life and never seem to get what they want? I mentioned above that every true prayer will be answered. There are prayers that God does not even hear (Isaiah 1:15) because the people that present the prayers are directly rebellious to His ways. Likewise, many people beg God to do this or that for them, but never do anything in return for God, often even cursing Him when things go wrong. (Read some of the Psalms for a biblical example.) How could we expect God to answer with a resounding “yes” in such cases?

Another obvious case that many do not consider is that God is in complete control of everything, yet many Christians do not ask according to His will or for His will to be done—rather, many people ask for just what they want, without even taking into consideration God’s will. Have you ever thought about the fact that another Christian somewhere could be praying for the exact opposite thing as you?

Perhaps, for example, you prayed this past week that the snow would go away and never come back. What if, perhaps a store that sells snowmobiles is barely meeting its bottom line and the recent snowfall has prevented major financial troubles? That store owner may have asked God for more snow. Am I implying that Christians need to compete with their prayers? Absolutely not; instead, Christians need to look at the big picture and allow God to work things out according to His will.

Since God is in control of the entire universe, don’t you think He knows what His plans are for your life? Have you ever prayed for something, thought that God did not answer the prayer, and only many years later realized how God’s “no” or “wait” set in line a series of events that was even better than what you originally asked for? How dare we take the place of God in knowing what is best for our lives!

I encourage you to develop a regular prayer life that is reliant on God’s will. A little reflection can often be all that is necessary to realize what God’s plans are. Sometimes, answers can be pretty vague, but rest assured, God knows what He is doing. Pray diligently. Pray often. Pray according to His will.

Think about it: sometimes a “yes,” “no” or “wait” would have brought a curse. Sometimes an answer would have fulfilled selfish wishes and furthered selfish desires. Sometimes it would be completely contradictory to God’s will. Surely we could not expect the answer we want in such cases.

There are millions of testimonies of answered prayer, but before you accuse God of not answering your prayer, realize that “yes” is not always that answer, and that no matter what the answer, God has a purpose in everything. I conclude with encouragement from I John 5:14-15: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”